As Canada Day 2009, our 142nd birthday, draws to a close here in Montreal, I suppose it’s just as well I didn’t plan to attend any fireworks display, because – surprise! – it’s starting to rain. Of course, one needn’t attend fireworks displays, or march in parades or hang huge flags out one’s window in Canada to prove one’s patriotism. Indeed, our lowkey attitudes – even phlegmatism – with regard to outward signs of patriotism distinguish us from our more flamboyant neighbours to the south.
Nevertheless, like so many of my fellow citizens, no Canada Day passes without my spending a good deal of it in reflection on how blessed I and my family are to live in this great, peaceful country, as benign and well-meaning a nation as one is able to find on this troubled globe. No country is perfect, but what unmolested Canadian could fail to feel blessed in his or her good fortune?
Well, one springs to mind. Vancouver-based Omar Shaban is the Vice President for western Canada of the Canadian Arab Federation, and he is definitely not feeling the gratitude vibe. Quite the opposite. Shaban has labelled Canada a “genocidal state” and described our national holiday on Facebook as “F*** Canada Day,” adding, to be sure he had made his point, “It’s finally Canada Day…Couldn’t be more ashamed to be Canadian.” Shaban is no aberration in the CAF. As staunchly anti-Islamist Tarek Fatah reported here: “While one VP of the Canadian Arab Federation was throwing insults at Canada, another Vice President of CAF was on cable TV showering praise on the discredited leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Appearing on a Muslim cable TV show, Ali Mallah endorsed the election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad as valid, and echoed the official line of the Tehran regime, claiming Western governments and Western Media were to blame for the current unrest in Iran. ”
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Good for the National Post to publish this column, although nothing that the CAF said is new or surprising. The attitudes expressed by the CAF leaders will, however, only continue to be voiced as more immigrants from Islamic countries are allowed to settle here. The multiculturalism mantra that every Canadian government employs (viz., Harper’s speech on 1 July) drowns out any reasoned and reasonable debate about immigration.
My guess is that the CAF, like CAIR in the US, is connected to jihadist groups. Perhaps like CAIR, it even raises mony for them. I would hope — though I suspect it is not happening due to legal constraints — that CSIS and the RCMP have CAF and its organisers under close scrutiny.
This may be correct, but the National Post and indeed most critics of Islamic groups have a long history of bias on middle eastern issues and their concerns will be dismissed as opportunism (do they ever criticize the open JDL presence in this country?). Someone with less of an agenda needs to take on CAF.
Excuses, apologies, denials, illigitimate comparisons…….sigh.
The JDL didn’t fly jets into buildings. Stop being such a puppet, Cynapse. You get a bit tiresome.
Does this group get any government funding, if so, stop it NOW and put it on the terrorist list.
What’s tiresome is these one-sided anti-Muslim tirades based on the actions of a few unelected groups of self-appointed community leaders. Becoming a 1-cause activist isn’t hard nor can anyone stop you even if they don’t want you to speak for them.
There are no excuses or apologies, I’m just tired of these damn double standards, where if you sympathize with the people they can do no wrong and everyone else can do no right. Any publication that went at the other side the way you guys attack Muslims would be banished to the David Icke island of looney toons.
Wrong Cynapse. What’s really tiresome is waiting to hear from your seemingly imaginary army of peace loving Muslims you’re always leading the charge for. Maybe before you jump up to lead the next charge for Allah take a moment to glance behind yourself. If this army does exist they’re still hiding in the trenches afraid to come out. A single voice of disapproval and condemnation here and there from a solitary Muslim just doesn’t cut it. I would suggest that we in the non-Islamic world are equally as tired as you, but for an entirely different reason. We are tired of waiting for these masses of peace loving Muslims you continually claim exist to stand up enmasse and back up your claims. It isn’t happening and it isn’t happening for a reason Cynapse.
Looks like you’re implying things I never said. Instead of being a raving colonialist why don’ t you look at the situation objectively?
1) You don’t know what 99.9% of Muslims think because you don’t spend time around any. You listen to soundbytes from yellow news sources who make their money by scaring old Anglo-Saxons about an endless succession of empire-ending invasions (Injuns, Ruskies, Negroes, now Eye-rabs, someone else later)
2) I never claimed any kind of pro-Western army of Muslim lackies to do your bidding. They make their choice by moving here. Since you spend so much agonizing about the reach and power of Muslims extremists, you no doubt know what happens to people who “talk” too much. It seems your “real Canadians” couldn’t even speak out right away about something so simple as the accidental shooting of Jane Creba. But you expect people from repressed countries in a foreign land to put themselves on the line against groups known to execute over trivial matters. Get serious.
So these ‘yellow news sources’ are fabricating the global attrocities committed in the name of Islam? No. So are they wrong to report them, loudly and proudly perpetrated by the evil doers in the name of Islam, because doing so gives Islam a bad name? So over 6 million Jews were murdered by Europeans and a bomb full of nails was detonated on a school bus in Israel, or a subway train in London by Asians. Is that how the news should be reported so as not to ‘offend’ anyone ? I’m not trash talking Muslims here Cynapse, if you dial down the anti-Muslim rhetoric somewhat, I am merely stating that I am tired of waiting for them to grow a backbone instead of a wishbone , if that is the basis for your defense. No doubt there is a degree of accuracy in your claim, that people (in this case we are talking about Muslims) from oppressed countries are afraid to speak up for what they believe in. But then what’s stopping the many many Muslims who were born in the west, in countries like Canada, who have never been repressed from speaking out from doing so and thus demonstrating what freedom of speech is all about. It’d be a hell of a lot better than just conveying the message that it’s okay to stay repressed because we ‘understand’ where they are coming from . What is keeping former Christians or other faiths who have converted to Islam from speaking out? Hmm, maybe it is they who should stop ‘agnoizing’ over the reach and power of Mulsim extremists and take a stand agasint the extremists actions , if that is how they feel. The simple question remains to be answered, where are they?
So where are all of the many Canadian born and raised former non Muslims, the outspoken Islam convert anti-Islamist speakers at events such as MuslimFest, or Reviving the Islamic Spirit? They have absolutely no reason to agonize over the reach and power of Muslim extremists than any other Canadian Cynapse, acccording to you that is, so where are they?
Yellow journalism entails taking a kernel of truth, blowing it out of proportion and setting out to enrage or cause panic in the reader. It also tends to be one-sided. The fact that the sites and pundits your political persuasion favours tend to entail yellow journalism of the highest order does not mean that bad things aren’t happening in the Islamic world. It’s quite possible to find this information detached from the “gates of Vienna” hysteria and calls for Israel to colonize the whole middle east. If you’re correct about something, just report the facts and let the reader decide. Kind of like Fox, except actually do it.
You also can’t divorce this situation from the colonial aspect of the conflict. Bin Laden and many other Islamists have been plain as day about wanting US troops off their soil. But America is not going anywhere because they need to keep the local (hated) regimes stable and secure the oil supply. Recall this need is what caused America to overthrow a democratically elected government and put the Shah of Iran back in power (paving the way for the Islamist revolution) in the first place. The West is meddling over there, and some people think that any form of defiance is legitimate. Yet, conservatives always seem to leave this out of the equation.
Solve the economic issue and much of this “Islamism” will probably cease to exist. The radicals will still exist but the Muslim public, enjoying the long-gone feeling of ownership over their country, will have a strong reason to fight back.
You don’t have to explain yellow journalism to me Cynapse, I have been a serious victim of it in my career. It negatively and permanently affected my life in ways I am not about to divulge. Although I am close friends with 2 fairly well known (close enough to have been invited to their weddings) and respected Canadian journalists, I wouldn’t piss on the rest of them if they were on fire. My journalist friends know of what I speak and are considered amongst my biggest supporters and actually wouldn’t help put out the fire either. Heck, they might even pass me the gas can if I asked.
Interesting. Why do you continue to quote such slanted and hysterical sites when looking for Islamist information?
Actually were you and I ever to meet I think, no I’m pretty certain actually, that we’d be both pleasantly surprised.. We would for sure have a great conversation. Now, how about that? As far as quoting slanted and hysterical sites (sorry, I had to LOL to myself when I typed this)………such as?
Well I’m pretty sure you’ve quoted Fjordman and the actual Gates of Vienna blog – ridiculously biased sources. Also I believe you quoted that “The Religion of Peace” blog. Um, when the name is mocking a pop culture phrase bestowed on Islam by Bush Jr, there’s a good chance you’re not going to get a balanced picture.